This is England
by cmclean1994
Summary: OC centric - Puck is rescued from the porta-potty by the new English transfer student instead of Lauren, and convinces him to join glee club. No Lauren
1. Chapter 1

**AN: I don't own Glee or its characters. Nothing in this story is meant to offend, but if it does, then that's on you. **

Chapter 1

"Are you an angel?" it takes a lot of self-control not to burst a lung by laughing too hard, can you imagine dying by laughter? A part of me thinks that would be a good way to go, but then I remember the few times I've laughed so hard it started to hurt. Then I think of how much that pain would have to multiply in order to kill you, and this situation is suddenly less funny than it was just a moment ago.

The guy I'm staring at is curled up in a corner of a tipped over porta-potty, and he's not looking too healthy. "Not quite. You know you've been in this thing for about twenty hours now. It's like, the next morning. You hungry?" I held out a packet of strawberry pop tarts, the breakfast of champions.

Watching him destroy those two innocent pop tarts was both fascinating and disgusting at the same time; I'm honestly surprised he managed to get the wrapper off before inhaling them. "Thanks dude, you gonna help me outta this thing or what?" he asked holding out a hand.

"Not so fast buddy, I figured I need to acclimatise myself to the smell first."

"Why?" the poor guy just looks more dazed and confused.

"Well, I'll probably end up in one of these things myself soon enough, what with me joining that glee club of yours," seriously, it should be a crime to be this nonchalant.

I politely wait for him to catch up; he has had a rough night after all. "You'll join? Awesome… wait, why would you want to join after this?"

"So I was there for your little speech in the locker room yesterday," I reach in and pull him out, "you seem pretty convinced glee club is a good thing."

"It totally is dude, you won't regret joining. You're the new running back right?"

"Just transferred from England, and I'm not totally sold on the idea, yet. I'm in early to use the gym, you have until I finish my workout to convince me glee is worth my time."

I've already decided that I'm going to join, but the entertainment for the next half hour is top notch. Instead of blasting my iPod on shuffle, I have Noah Puckerman – "call me Puck, dude" - ranting about the joys of glee club. _Dude, you will get so many chicks, okay, not really. However, some of the girls in glee are super fine. _I won't lie, the prospect of watching attractive girls singing and dancing is a bonus. I mean sure, I could watch the Cheerios practice whenever I want, but from a distance they're all so similar it's freaky, like an army of cheering robots; and it's not like they let you get up close when they're performing.

"Alright, I'll make you a deal; I'll join glee, if you take me under your wing."

"Dude, the Puckerone doesn't swing that way."

"_Dude_, I wasn't coming on to you. I mean like, show me around the place, and tell me which Cheerios will give me VD. That kind of shit."

"You want me to be your bro?"

"Yeah, I could do with a bro around here."

"Sweet, dude. I'll take you round to the choir room after school. You won't have to audition or anything."

"Low standards huh? I'm cool with that," I chuckled.

Puck winced, "Yeah, there's eleven of us and we need twelve to compete. You won't have to do much, just sway in the back if you want to. We can't all be badass at everything like me."

I couldn't help but laugh at that, "I think I can hold my own on that front."

After a quick shower for me and a longer shower for Puck, we went our separate ways for class with plans for him to meet me after my last class. Unfortunately for me, the day was as long as it was boring, and I couldn't find it in me to concentrate on any of the lessons. It's not because I was looking forward to glee club or anything… fine, I like to sing, okay. And I'm actually good at it.

My last class finally finished, and as I left the room, I saw Puck leaning against the wall opposite the door. "How did you get here so fast, didn't you have class just now?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah calculus, or English or something. Dude that doesn't matter, let's go," we started walking and Puck was pointing out various rooms as we went, _Janitors closet, it has a lock on the inside. Great for making out without being walked in on. _

After my second tour of the building - after the third anecdote I realised Pucks tour would be a whole lot funnier than my first - we finally walked into the choir room and I noticed ten kids sitting on the risers at the back of the room. My eyes were pretty much glued to a _smokin' _hot Latina wearing a Cheerios outfit giving me a flirty smile and a little wave, as Puck started introducing them all to me. The only one I actually took in was Santana, the one who had just winked at me, not even trying to be subtle. Just as he was about to introduce me to them, he was interrupted.

"Josh!"

Before I could respond to that, I was slammed into by a small, familiar body. I looked down into the girl's beaming face and felt a grin spread across my face, "Tina," I breathed out. I laughed as I picked her up and spun her around. I knew she lived in Ohio, but I had no idea she went to this school, the chances of this happening were pretty small.

"So… you know each other then?" Puck asked.

**Flashback**

Man this sucks. It's only the second day of two weeks, and I'm already bored out of my mind. The company my dad works for is pretty big in the world, and every few years they throw a big conference for the worldwide upper management, I'm just glad this time it's in my own back yard. I mean, two whole weeks in a hotel resort in London, and I have no one to do anything with, none of my friends even want to come through to the city for a day. They all live like, an hour away. Seriously, I don't even feel the need to try and get laid right now, _what is wrong with me?_

I strolled into the hotel arcade to waste away the afternoon, that pinball high-score has my name all over it. It takes about an hour before I manage to break into the top ten with eighth place, and I'm given three letters to spell out my name. Looks like Jay will have to do. I scowl as the screen changes to the top ten high scores, and all of them are the same except from mine. _Ajx, _you are so going down.

A few hours later and I now have second, fourth, fifth, and ninth place. I would carry on, but the fact that I'm still seeing the flashing lights when my eyes are closed is slightly worrying for me. Checking my watch, I realise that I've missed dinner, which is fine really, twenty-four hour room service. You have to enjoy the simple things in life. Well, room service is pretty simple for me right now.

Just as I'm about to walk out of the arcade, I see a girl leaning against the wall, I had no idea people could look that sad in an arcade. She's a small Asian girl wearing some pretty awesome threads. I've never been into the gothic scene myself, but it looks pretty kick ass, I'll admit.

"Hey darling, why the sad face," God, I am so smooth.

"Did you just call me darling?" she scoffed. She honest to God just scoffed at me, I didn't think girls could do that to me. Must be because she's from America. Yeah, that's definitely it.

"Sure, just being friendly. I mean, you're in an arcade, and you're younger than forty. Why are you not smiling?" I asked with a big grin. What, I'm riding out a gaming high.

"Because, I'm stuck here for two weeks with my parents while they're at a stupid conference. I'm already bored, and it's only day two."

"Preaching to the choir love, I'm in exactly the same position myself."

"Really?"

I smile at her shyness, "Yeah, why don't the two of us hang out for a bit? I could show you around, do the touristy thing, you know."

"But you don't even know me."

"No worries, that'll change soon enough. Meet me tomorrow for coffee?" I put on my charming persuasive face, and I can already see her resistance breaking. These two weeks might not be as bad as I thought, and the large smile on her face shows she thinks the same.

**End Flashback**

"Yeah, he showed me around London this summer, it was great," she turned back to me with a smile, "What are you even doing here?"

I shrugged. "My dad just transferred to the Ohio branch, it was all pretty sudden, or I would have definitely called." A couple of the girls swooned, _swooned,_ when they heard me speak. Awesome.

"This is amazing! Oh," she dragged me to an Asian guy I recognised from the football team, "This is my boyfriend, Mike."

"I know Mike, football," we nod to each other, for we are men. He seems suspicious of me, probably because his girlfriend still has a death grip on my arm. I gently pry her off and nod to Mike again. He nods back with a more accepting expression on his face. Like I said, men.

Before anything can be said, the teacher in the room jumps in, I'm pretty sure he teaches Spanish or something, "It's great to have you here, why don't you introduce yourself, Josh, was it?"

I nod to him, "Yeah, Joshua Harris, Josh is preferred," I shrugged.

"Great, welcome to the New Directions!" Everyone claps and cheers, smiles on all of their faces.

Once the non-football players are introduced again, Tina, Puck, Santana and a small girl called Rachel take it upon themselves to give me a crash course in the numbers for Sectionals. The dance steps are relatively simple for me, are the harmonies are easy to pick up. According to Rachel, my range is no way near big enough to be a star, which doesn't actually bother me.

Rachel comes across as a little crazy, but it doesn't really bother me too much, and Santana is heavily flirting with me, I'm pretty sure if we were alone then I would already be naked. I'll admit that I'm very cool with that, so I break out the English charm; a _darling _here, and a _sweetheart _there, and her eyes are alight with a fire I definitely recognise. Seriously, these American girls are like, addicted to the accent.

I stop flirting long enough to catch up with Tina, and it's great to see her again. The two weeks we hung out in London were probably the most fun I had had in a while, and not once did I think about trying to seduce her, which was just weird. While Puck taught me the dancing, Santana flirted and Rachel analysed everything, Tina helped the most with the singing; and she assured me my range was perfectly fine.

* * *

So I won't lie, it's a good job I have excellent self-control, because watching Santana blast out 'Valarie' was a pretty big turn on, probably had something to do with the eye-fucking. That combined with some brilliant dancing from Mike and Brittany meant that we absolutely killed Sectionals. I honestly have no clue how it was a tie. But the rest of the guys were pretty happy with it, a win is still a win I suppose.

Plus, the guy I replaced on the New Directions was one of the Dalton Academy Warblers, the team that tied with us, so there were a lot of mixed congratulations between the two teams. I was also introduced to Kurt, who gave me an appreciative glance before blushing, which I couldn't help but laugh at.

We stuck around for a little bit after, hanging out in the green room and having a good time. The win had seemed to erase the tension and drama of before the show, which was pretty fascinating for me. It felt like someone had dropped me into a TV show with all the bitching that had gone on, sleeping with other people's boyfriends, lies and secrets, I actually started to feel sorry for Rachel. I didn't know people could be so catty, it was weird because all of my friends in England never really seemed to fight.

When it was time to leave, we were all getting on the bus to head back to the school when Santana grabbed my hand and pulled me to the back of the bus to 'get our mack on'. I was only confused until she sat across my lap with her back against the window, before she started to kiss me. I was surprised for about a second before I started to kiss her back, my hand resting on her hip. I was also surprised nobody said anything about it, not that I'm complaining.

"You can drive right?" I nodded to her before lightly kissing her neck. "So are you going to drive me home?" she asked as we were pulling into the school car park.

"Yeah, I can do that,"

"Great, I just need to tell Brittany, I was going to get a lift with her dad," she slid off my lap and before I could leave the bus myself, Puck sat in the seat next to me, blocking my exit.

"Couldn't help but overhear that you're giving Lopez a ride home."

"Is this going somewhere?"

"I happen to know from experience that the look she's been sending you all day is her 'fuck me' look." I raised my eyebrow at this; it was pretty much what I had assumed. "So, do you have protection? Because glee club doesn't need another teen pregnancy."

"No way! Mate, who was it?" this drama stuff just gets better and better.

"Doesn't matter, I'll tell you the whole story later, so do you?" he asked again.

I was a little disappointed at the lack of information, but I have patience, "Yeah, if it comes up I've got it."

"Cool man, also, we never had this conversation. I do not need Satan ripping off my nuts right now," he bumped his fist against mine and we got up to leave, my laughter surrounding us.

Santana was waiting just to the left of the door and before I got the chance to say anything she grabbed my arm, "Tell me the sweet cherry mustang is yours?" she pleaded.

I looked around the car park, occupied by only a small number of cars, including mine, "Yeah, it's mine." My dad had bought it for me as an 'I just uprooted your life and moved you half way around the world, sorry' gift. He seemed to think everyone in America had a muscle car, and it would help me fit in. Not bloody likely, but I was not complaining, it was a sweet ride.

She squealed and took off for the car, looking practically giddy; it was a weird look for her. I walked over and caught up to her as she was bent over staring at the interior of the car, "Do you like it?"

She jumped and looked a little embarrassed about her fan girl moment; "Are you kidding me? This car is awesome, the only thing it needs is a sexy woman on the hood." She gave me a smirk before hopping onto the car, laying back in a seductive pose, "Oh wait, never mind." I laughed at her until she started slowly sucking on her finger, which caused a slightly different reaction. This girl was criminally hot.

She giggled as I grumbled for her to get in the car, after I had unlocked it. As she was giving me directions to her house, she fiddled with my radio, which was incredibly annoying. The fact that she was rubbing my thigh insanely close to my crotch kind of made up for it though.

We finally pulled into the driveway of a large detached house in the suburbs, "Nice house," I whistled.

"Both of my parents are doctors, and they're both working the night shift. You want to come in?"

The engine was off and I was out of the car holding open the passenger side door quicker than I thought possible. I need to chill the fuck out right now, I feel like a blushing virgin, which couldn't be further from the truth. She just laughed and led me to the door.

The inside of the house was seriously nice, the benefits of two Doctors bringing in a pay check every month I guess. It seemed Santana wasn't one for pleasantries as she dragged me up the stairs and into a large bedroom covered in blacks, purples and reds, there was a large opened closet with clothes spilling onto the floor, it suited her.

She plugged her iPod into a docking station and started fiddling with it, her back turned towards me. "Just so we're clear," she started, "I do not want a relationship with you, and we are not dating. I am about to have sex with you though, because I'm horny, and you're hot… and British."

You can't fault that logic, "I don't know, love. I'm just not sure I can have sex with someone so meaninglessly," I replied. Must contain laughter, must remain expressionless, and must control breathing, dammit. She turned around and stared at me incredulously, and I was practically vibrating with suppressed laughter. I lasted about two seconds before a small chuckle forced its way out of my mouth, and once it was free it was followed by a bout of hysterical manly giggles, bugger. "Oh God… your face is… absolutely hilarious right now."

"That shit is not funny," she didn't look too impressed.

I managed to get myself under control before smirking at her, "I'm joking of course, I am actually fine with it. I'm no stranger to meaningless sex, or one night stands."

She made a non-committal noise before turning back to the iPod, I laughed when a familiar song started playing. She pulled my shirt over my head before taking hers of and pushing me onto the bed and straddling me. A little less conversation, indeed.

* * *

It had been a couple of weeks since I had joined New Directions and we had tied for first place in Sectionals, ensuring our place in the Regionals competition. Not too long after the win, I had experienced my first slushie facial, which was both shocking and infuriating. I had almost flipped out at the two meatheads who did it, Karofsky and Azimio, but Tina had pulled me of towards a bathroom to help me clean up. Seriously, corn syrup in the eyes; was not a good thing.

After a cool down period, I decided to be the bigger man and leave them be, mostly. I may or may not have accidentally slammed my elbow into Karofsky's lower back while perfecting a running play in practice. The next day in the locker room, I spotted him rubbing a cream into his back and wincing, and if I spent the time while showering whistling in joy, no one commented on it.

Coach Beiste was not happy with the animosity between the Glee kids on the team and the other jocks, and had been working us hard in training. It was a good idea really, we were all too exhausted to fight with each other, but words were still said when off the pitch.

We were all currently sitting at the side of the pitch, watching the half-time show the Cheerios were putting on, which was pretty impressive. It was the first game I had played in, and I had the number thirty displayed all over my upper body; back, chest, and both shoulders. I was standing between Puck and Mike, both wide receivers, with my helmet hanging off my fingers by the face guard.

We were drawing with the other team with fourteen points each, and if we won then we were guaranteed a place in the championship game, and everyone was confident we would win. Despite this, I was getting incredibly frustrated with Finn who refused to call any running plays, which made me kind-of redundant. I was acting as a slotback or secondary tight end on every play, and I was getting sick of it.

I walked over to Finn and pulled him down to a reasonable height so he could hear me over the music, "Listen mate, we're not going to get anywhere in this game if we don't mix things up a bit."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean, is that you're calling a pass on every play, and they've got you figured out already. They're fielding man-to-man and zone defence and they're forcing incomplete's and turnovers, it's ridiculous."

"So what you're trying to say is that you want some glory."

I honestly can't believe how daft he is being right now, "This isn't about me, you idiot. This is about winning. We were leading two touchdowns to none, and they have managed to catch up, so we need to change something. Throw in some play-action or trick plays at least."

He seemed to be considering the idea at least, "Coach said something similar," he finally admitted.

Ha, vindication is sweet, "Thank bloody Christ for that," I mutter before letting him go and walking off.

"What was that about?" Mike asked as I walked back over to him.

"Just some friendly advice on how not to suck as a QB," I replied with a grin. I was met with another grin and a pat on the back.

It was only another couple of minutes before we were back in a huddle, the ball waiting on our twenty-two. Finn looked around at us all, "Okay, I think you can all agree when I say we need to stop throwing so many passes." That absolute tosser, who does he think he is? "So we're going to do a naked bootleg."

I recognise the play instantly; the QB fakes a hand-off to the running back and runs in the opposite direction while still carrying the ball. It's pretty much like a quarterback sweep, only without any blockers. Before I can rip into the douchebag Puck jumps in, "Dude, is that a clever thing to do? I mean, you're not exactly light on your feet."

"It'll work if Harris sells the hand-off."

His condescending tone makes my want to punch him in the stomach, and everyone is looking at me now. "I can fake the run, and the lack of blockers will hopefully cause some confusion with the cornerback," I grudgingly admit. It is a decent play; I just don't think he can pull it off.

We break and get into position, with me standing behind and slightly to the right of Finn, getting ready to run to the left and into a veritable wall of people so he can feel special. What an arsehole.

He calls the snap and turns to me, pulling off the fake hand-off surprisingly well, and I'm suddenly running. I tilt my right shoulder slightly to hide the fact I am not actually carrying the ball, and when I get past the offensive line I cut up the field. I don't get that far when I am slammed into by someone to my right and I go down.

When I manage to right myself, I look up at the scoreboard, second and twelve on our twenty. Fantastic, the idiot lost ground, and I can't say that I am surprised; Puck was right, he's too slow to pull off anything like what we just tried. Even if the cornerback was confused, the outside linebacker definitely wasn't.

The game progresses pretty quickly from there, and when there are only five minutes left on the clock, we're still drawing, both teams gaining a field goal each and two touchdowns. We had managed to pull off an amazing seventy yard counter run and I scored my first touchdown ever, which I was happy about, until they turned around and scored one of their own that is. On the bright side, after his failed naked bootleg, Finn wised up and started playing for the team instead of himself.

We huddle around and Finn decides on a play-action slant pass, and we break to get into position. The only problem being that the defence are playing zone coverage, which could be tricky. Luckily, Finn has spotted it as well and turns to shout, "Righteous Mike!"

I smile to myself and take a couple of steps to the right. Righteous is one of the code words we set up at the end of the third quarter, in case we had to change our play any time between the huddle and the snap. It stood for a reverse running play.

This play resembles a sweep, but before the running back (in this case, me) crosses the line of scrimmage, I hand the ball off to a wide receiver (Mike – hence, righteous Mike) going in the opposite direction of where I was going. If the defence is drawn to the side of the field I was going towards, Mike can outrun the defence to the other side of the field and make a big gain.

Finn snaps the ball and hands it off to me, and I run to the left, playing my part to perfection. The hand-off to Mike is smoother than any that I've performed, in training and in this match, and the defence doesn't notice a thing. I break a tackle and make it just shy of twenty-five yards before I'm brought to the ground by a safety, but I can tell by the noise from the crowd that they've figured out Mike has the ball, and he is still running.

I get to my feet in time to see him run into the end zone and start popping and locking, that crazy, jerky dance he's so good at, and the crowd seem to love it. The rest of the team are celebrating as if we've already won, and I join them; because we just pulled off an awesome play, and won a spot in the championship game, and I feel like the man for being a part of it.

For the next few minutes, we managed to keep them out of our end zone, and forced them to take three points from a field goal, before running down the clock. It was then that the celebrating really started, with the Cheerios dancing, and music streaming from speakers, and everyone hugging everyone else. I watched as Mike and a couple of the other players celebrate with their girlfriends, and felt a pang of envy.

My frown was replaced by a large grin as Puck told me of the party he was throwing at his house in celebration. Loud music, alcoholic beverages, and Cheerios, were three things that I desperately need right now.

"Josh," I turn and see Tina running over to me for a hug, which I accept. "That last touchdown was awesome, you and Mike were amazing. And when you ran through four guys and the whole pitch and scored was really good."

"Yeah, thanks love, I am pretty spectacular. Footwork, you know. It makes me a good dancer too, nothing like Mike, but good enough."

"Maybe you can dance with me in Glee sometime?" she asks hopefully "And you still haven't sung for us yet, I know you're good, I heard you when we were in London."

"Yeah I'm decent I suppose, it's just not really come up yet. Listen, I need to grab a shower, I'll catch you later yeah?" she nods and hugs me again before going off into the crowd somewhere.

I'm in the locker room and about to take off my shoulder pads when I'm shoved into the lockers none to gently. "Just because you're decent at football doesn't mean we're going to leave you alone. Glee club is for losers, so we'll treat you like one."

I turn and see Karofsky standing alone, the rest of the team still not back in yet. "You are aware you were just referring to yourself as a plural right?" I ask which seems to confuse him a little.

"I mean me and the rest of the team, singing and dancing is for homo's."

Time to bring out the trump card I think, "Yeah? So why haven't you joined yet?"

He rapidly pales and glances around before grabbing me and pushing me against the lockers, "You don't know anything."

He is really making this too easy for me, "You know, ever since you and Azimio caught me with that slushie, I've been keeping an eye out for you, and it's surprising how much you notice when you actually look at the world around you. You may think you hide it well, but I know, okay."

"I'm not gay!" he whisper-shouts at me.

"Hey listen, there's nothing wrong with being gay, but imagine the torment you'd go through when people find out. I don't think the rest of the team will be happy to know they've been changing in front of a shirt lifter all this time."

"You wouldn't… no one will believe you."

"Trust me powder puff, I would, and the right words whispered to the right people and everyone will know you're on the down low. Now here's what's going to happen, we're going to forget this little conversation happened, but you need to remember that if you cross me, I will ruin you. Are we clear?"

He backs off looking scared, "Yeah, we're clear."

"Good, so I'm about to get naked right now, try not to be too obvious in your leering, we don't want anyone else finding out now do we." He turns and punches a locker before fleeing the room. I was probably a little harsh with the name calling, but I'm sure he can handle it.

Puck came strolling through the door and jerked a thumb over his shoulder, "What's up with him?"

"Not sure mate, had his phone out, probably got a text or something," I shrug and walk into the showers. Once I'm done I change into a dark pair of skinny jeans, the kind that would call my sexuality into question if I wasn't such a flirt, and a plain buttoned shirt. If I learned one thing from my old friends, it was to always be prepared for a party.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Like I said in the first chapter, I don't own Glee or its characters. I probably won't be posting any more disclaimers for this story after this, my lack of ownership is pretty self explanatory. It's kind of why I'm writing fanfiction and not rolling in piles of money. Enjoy**

Chapter 2

_Oh my God,_ I feel like I've been trampled by a horde of Cheerios. I'm lying in an unfamiliar bed, with an unfamiliar girl draped across my chest, with sunlight streaming through a nearby window, and an unfortunately familiar throbbing in my head. It slightly worries me that this is not the first time that this has happened.

I almost cried out in pain when a heavy metal song started to play at an ear-splitting volume from somewhere downstairs, with a thrashing guitar instrumental to start. The girl on my chest merely groans and rolls off me, grabbing a pillow to cover her head.

I stumble out of the bed and slowly start to dress, spotting the discarded Cheerios uniform, which narrows down who the girl is. Making a quick 'wallet-phone-keys' check, I stomp my way downstairs and send my best death glare Puck's way, which does nothing to stop him laughing his head off. Fortunately, he does switch off the offending music, fortunately for him that is.

"What the bloody hell are you playing at?" I croak out quite pathetically.

He sends me a smug smirk that I would totally smack off his face if I was feeling any less like death, "It's how I wake everyone up after a party, makes sure they all leave so I can clean up. You are welcome for your first ever Puckzilla wake-up call."

"I hate you so much right now."

He leads me into the kitchen and hands me a bottle of pills, which I assume are a form of pain medication, not that I bother checking before I swallow two of them dry. I follow that up with sticking my head under the tap, and turning it on, sweet relief.

"By the way," I start, "There is a girl upstairs who didn't really notice your wake-up call, second door on the right."

His eyes go wide at that, "Dude! Did you have sex in my little sister's bedroom?"

Now that he mentions it, that room was suspiciously girly. "Err… yes. However, unless your sister is a Cheerio, I am pretty sure it wasn't _her_ that I slept with."

He splutters and stammers for a little while, which is rather amusing, "You have to help me clean up now," he finally managed while pointing at my chest. "And, you have to wake the Cheerio," he thinks he's won, with his smug smile in place.

"Fine, but you have to clean up any bodily fluids." I'm pretty sure I saw someone throw up into a vase last night, and after he agrees reluctantly, I point out said vase; Puck is not happy.

* * *

Its Monday lunchtime and I'm putting my books into my locker, which is disgustingly bare. I've casually glanced into open lockers when the opportunity arose, and everyone has little personal touches, while mine is boring and grey. Grey is _so_ not my style.

As I slam the door closed, I notice a Cheerio standing eerily close to me, which is slightly unexpected. I raise my eyebrow at her when she doesn't say anything, she just continues to stare at me, and I can vaguely recognise her from somewhere. Probably just in passing.

I realise that it is down to me to start talking, "Can I help you with something, darling?" It's a nice casual icebreaker.

She glares at me, clearly offended by something, "You had sex with me Friday night."

Okay, she is either offended that I would sleep with her, or that I've already forgotten her, probably the latter. If only I could remember her name. I give her a once over and see she's holding a notebook in her crossed arms, and I can see the beginning of a name, my salvation! I can only make out the first two letters, a 'J' and an 'a', looks like I'll have to take a gamble.

"I know I did, Jane," _please be right._

She beams at me, my earlier offense forgotten, that's what I call a success! "I was wondering if you want to go out for coffee sometime." Bugger, now what the hell do I do?

I glance around and see Puck coming up behind her and I send him a pleading glance, begging him to save me with my eyes, I need my bro.

"Harris, Mr S needs to see you like, yesterday," he says. Jane turns around when she hears him and I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. Sweet relief, I am saved.

"Sorry Jane," she turned back to me looking a little disappointed, "I'll have to get back to you on that." I grab Puck's arm and drag him away, leaving behind my one night stand. "Thank you so much, you have no idea how much you just saved my arse."

"A girl you slept with asking you out on a date?"

"I stand corrected, you do have an idea it seems," I grin and clap him on the shoulder. "How can I make it up to you?"

"You can help me steal presents from the mall," he suggests. I'm not sure if he is serious or not.

"Didn't you go to Juvie last time you stole something?"

"Don't worry about it, the presents are empty."

"Then why are we stealing them?"

"To put under our new Christmas tree in the choir room, and let's face it, who else is gonna do it?" He has a point there.

"You have a point there," we grin at each other. "Did you steel the tree too?"

"Nah, Hudson found it on the side of the road somewhere, it's in pretty bad shape, and he thinks it represents us Glee kids."

"Well that's just offensive. Sure, I'll help you nick a few empty presents. It's the least I can do after you saved my arse back there."

"You talk weird."

"The chicks love it, so shut up."

"No, you shut up."

"You're stupid."

"No, you're stupid."

"Seriously mate, you're making me want to go back and ask Jane the Cheerio out for coffee." We stop and look at each other for a second, before breaking out in laughter at the ridiculousness of my statement.

"Come on dude, we'll take my truck. Lunch is on you though, you owe me."

* * *

It was a… strange feeling, celebrating the Christmas season with people. It has been a long time since I have had a joyful Christmas. For years now my dad would buy me some great gifts, and it's not that I'm ungrateful, he just does not seem to realise that all the latest gadgets are not a valid substitute for his presence in my life.

Singing 'The Most Wonderful Day of the Year' with the rest of the Glee club, while hanging stolen decorations on a lost and found tree, and putting stolen empty presents under said tree, is the most fun I have had while doing anything Christmas related. Now that I think of it, that is just really pathetic, what am I doing with my life?

"Hey guys, what's this?" _Wow,_ Mr Schuester can certainly sneak around; he just came out of nowhere.

Finn perks up a little, "Oh, we're trying to get into the Christmas spirit Mr Schue."

"That's not the only spirit I want to get into," I interrupt too quietly for the teacher in the room to hear. Santana and Puck smirk a little, and Finnocence sends me a quick glare before turning back to Mr Schue.

"Christmas is totally my favourite holiday, and check out this awesome tree. I found it on the side of the road; it must've fallen of some guy's car."

"And the ornaments?"

Mr Schue gets a little baffled when Santana tells him where she got the ornaments, and seriously, it is a strange story. Neighbours killing off their parents, holiday hoarding. Wait, did she just admit to stealing from a house? Well, I suppose it is no worse than Puck and me.

"Uh… and the presents?" he asks hesitantly.

"I lifted them from a display at the mall, but don't worry, they're empty," Puck answers, shooting me a quick wink. I am not sure why he doesn't mention my involvement, but I think I'm grateful for it anyway.

I don't know how Mr Schuester sounds both pleased and disappointed, but he does, "Guys, look, I appreciate the effort but, this isn't what Christmas is supposed to be like."

Mercedes jumps in, "For us it is. This tree is like a mascot for Glee club, we won Sectionals two years in a row, and according to everyone at this school; we still suck." Mike, Tina and Mercedes fill us in on their morning slushie adventure.

"I'm pretty sure they just added food colouring to real slush from the parking lot," Mike says sounded quite disheartened.

I wince a little, because that sounds a bit worse than a normal slushie.

"No, I am not gonna let you guys throw yourselves a pity party," he says while putting the little Christmas tree in his hands on the piano. "Look, I'm the first one to say that things haven't gone exactly how I would have liked them to this year. Christmas is all about being grateful for the things that did."

"I thought that was Thanksgiving?" everyone ignores Puck, which seems to be the norm when he says something stupid, or perverted for that matter. Wait a minute, that wasn't something stupid; Puck actually has a point. Not that I would know really, Thanksgiving is an American thing, and I still get confused when someone says pants when they're talking about trousers.

However, I suppose you can still be thankful for things on Christmas as well. Also, what about the things that happen between thanksgiving and Christmas that earns a little thanks. Are you supposed to wait until next year? That seems silly to me, but they are American, which gives them a valid excuse.

The bell rings and I snap out of my reflection, everyone looks a little morose, except for Mr Schue, who looks slightly giddy. What did I miss?

* * *

So it turns out, that most American teenagers don't really appreciate carolling, not that I can blame them; even the teachers didn't like it, one of them threw her shoe at us! And even though it made Mr Schue realise no one wanted us to sing for them, and let us go back to the choir room, _she threw her shoe at us._ What kind of person throws a shoe at kids trying to raise money for homeless children?

I was walking alone through the halls of the school the next day about an hour after classes ended; most of the group had left for the mall to save Brittany's innocence. As it turns out she still believes in Santa, and Artie wanted everyone to go to Santa's grotto at the mall. No matter how much I liked Brittany, and I did like her, there was no way I was going to sit on a weird guy's lap, so I went to the gym instead. It was less sociable for sure, but a little more productive.

Puck stuck with me, while Mike and Sam went to the mall, mainly because their girlfriends were going. I don't know about Finn, who knows what he gets up to in his spare time. Puck had just left for home, and I was going to leave too, but figured this would be a good opportunity to check out the auditorium for a little while, so that's where I'm heading.

I entered through a door at the back of the large room, and saw Rachel and Finn on the stage, surrounded by white and blue Christmas trees and the band that help us out in Glee. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but Finn storming off like a man-child couldn't really be misinterpreted. Before I could make up my mind about what to do, artificial snow started falling onto the stage and Rachel was singing, and I found myself taking a seat and watching.

She was good. I mean, I knew she was good; she doesn't really let anyone forget it. However, I had never heard her really sing. She was singing a generic Christmas song that I can't find it in me to care about, but I liked it. When she finished I decide I had to be a little dramatic, and started a slow, loud clap.

"Who's there?" she asks, squinting into the darkness.

I stand and start walking closer to the stage, "Only your favourite member of Glee club darling, who happens to be British."

She smiles a little, "Joshua, you are the _only_ British member of Glee club."

"Aha! Take note of how you never denied me being your favourite, because I shall never let you forget it." She quickly thanks the band and descends from the stage to join me a few rows up. "You have a wonderful voice, but you already know that."

"Thank you for saying so anyway, why are you here just now?"

"I thought it was about time that I checked out the auditorium, I didn't know it was occupied."

"Weren't you here when we did 'Dog Days Are Over' after Sectionals?"

"No, I kind of skipped out on that one, still getting settled in the new neighbourhood. What was wrong with Finnocence?"

"Why do you call him that?" she seems more curious than annoyed.

I let out a sigh, "Me and Finn don't really see eye to eye on a lot of things."

"Would you elaborate?"

"Well, I think he is arrogant and rather ignorant, not to mention full of himself."

"That's not true; he's kind and caring," she insists.

"Rachel, you're blinded by your childish infatuation with him." Note to self, no matter how softly I try to say things, they can still make people angry.

"I am not infatuated with him, I love him!" she says, glaring at me.

"Are you sure of that? Is there not a chance that because he was the first person at this school to show you a little compassion, that you have latched onto him, and are too scared to let go. Because I'm rather certain that you have no idea what love feels like, and I don't mean how you love and are loved by your parents, and how could you know? How could any of us? We are only teenagers after all. None of us have any real experience with the world."

I sigh again as I notice her tears, "Answer me this Rachel, truthfully, what is the most important thing to you in this moment, the one thing you can't see yourself without in five, or ten years? Don't say what you think you should say, but what you feel."

She frowns and wipes a tear off her cheek, it takes her a while to answer and I sit and wait patiently. When she does speak she is looking at her feet, and her voice is quiet and soft, "My voice… my dreams."

I smiled a little and put my arm across her shoulders giving her a one-armed hug, "You see? If you were truly in love with him, you wouldn't have even had to think about that."

"I'm so confused…"

I have no idea what to say to that, so I just wrap my other arm around her and hold her to me as she cries, it's supposed to be comforting or whatever.

* * *

Apparently, the trip to the mall for Brittany only made things worse, because 'Santa' promised her that he could make Artie walk again for Christmas. I hate to be a cynic, but I am pretty sure there is no way Artie is getting out of that chair of his any time soon.

I'm with the rest of the guys, minus Finnept, in the locker room before practice trying to convince Coach Beiste to play the part of Santa and tell Brittany it can't be done. After Puck almost insults her, I decide to jump in.

"Listen Coach, I don't know if you know Brittany at all, and I know I've only known her for a short time, but she is the sweetest, most innocent girl I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. And I know that if we don't do what we can to keep some of the magic she sees in the world alive, then that spark that shines in her will dim, and I can't have that on my conscience."

It's a bit of a dramatic exaggeration, and Puck and Mike are looking at me as if I'm crazy, but it definitely had a positive effect on the woman standing before us.

It only takes a few more words from Artie, and Coach Beiste is agreeing to break into a girl's house in the middle of the night wearing a Santa Claus outfit, which is really amazing of her.

I spend practice running evasion drills with Puck and Mike, the two wide receivers, and hand-offs and play-actions with Sam and Finn. I don't really know Sam that well, but I like him a lot more than I like Finn, and he breaks out some hilarious impressions, alongside phrases in Na'vi, the language used by the aliens in Avatar.

Most people think he's a dork for doing it, but I think it's pretty awesome. He got excited when I told him that, and he tried to teach me some phrases. We had good fun doing it, but I can't remember any of the foreign language at all.

I made it out into the car park after a shower and started heading towards my car, but before I could get there, I spotted Rachel walking towards the gate. She was wearing an outfit for dancing, and it looked like she would freeze in this weather. I jog over to her and she turns when she hears me, "Hey sweetheart, are you walking home?"

"Hello Joshua, yes I am walking today, my car is in the garage and my dads are working late. Normally, Finn would drive me home, as we both have extra-curricular activities today, but obviously he's not very happy with me at the moment."

"Yeah…" I sigh as I take her bag off her shoulder. "Jesus Rachel, how can you even carry this thing? It's probably heavier than you."

"You exaggerate, and why did you even take my bag in the first place?" I don't know if I should be offended by her suspicion.

"Because I am going to give you a lift home, in my car, which will be a lot warmer than walking, so come on." I turn and walk over to my car taking her bag with me, leaving her no choice but to follow.

Rachel doesn't fiddle with my radio, but that's probably only because I leave it off so she can't. And unlike Santana, she isn't doing anything to distract me from the task of driving. "Didn't you have sex with Santana when you drove her home?" she blurts out.

"Whoa, um… yes, how did you know about that?"

"I overheard her telling Brittany about it, you're very good apparently," she says while blushing.

"Right, well… I am not driving you home for sex, okay. I'm just driving you home, because you live further than walking distance, especially this time of the year." It gets a little awkward after that, and nothing else is said on the way there.

"Thank you," she says as I stop outside what I assume to be her house, unless she directed me somewhere other than her house, which would be weird and a little pointless.

"You're welcome darling, what are friends for?"

"Are you?" she asks quietly, looking at her clenched hands in her lap.

"Am I what?"

"My friend…" her voice is really timid right now.

"Sure I am. Well, we're more like acquaintances I guess, we've not really talked much have we?"

She shakes her head and sighs quietly, which makes me sigh.

"I guess we'll just have to start talking more then, so we can be friends."

She looks at me with a large smile, "I'd like that."

"Good. Hey, how late did you say your dads would be?"

"I'm not sure; they usually get back around nine when they're working late, why do you ask?"

I think about going home to a large empty house, and the prospect of another microwave meal is a little bleak. "Well how about we go out somewhere to eat? We can talk some more, if you're not busy that is."

"I know a diner that has a good vegan selection; will you wait here while I get changed quickly?" I agree and she runs into her house, looking really excited.

She's back in less than five minutes and she's changed into jeans and a jacket, I had no idea she even owned a pair of jeans. She always wears those plaid skirts at school, and while nice, they leave everything above the knee to the imagination unlike these jeans which are seriously hugging her legs, and what a pair of legs. Seriously, Rachel Berry is hot, which isn't surprising when you think logically; she is a dancer.

She directs me to her vegan diner and we go inside, they have normal burgers too, which is good because I'm a little sceptical of the vegan variety, who even decided meat substitute was a good idea anyway?

"So, this is nice."

Okay, I'm really hoping this isn't going to be too awkward; I'll just have to find a way to break the ice.

* * *

We have finished eating, which wasn't as awkward as I had feared, and Rachel has just told me about sending a girl to a crack house. She has a surprised look on her face, probably not expecting me to start laughing. Sure, it was a pretty horrible thing to do, but it was something so unexpected I just had to laugh.

"How did you even know where a crack house was?" I ask when I stop laughing.

"That's not important; the important thing is that I feel terrible about it. I felt so threatened by her talent that I didn't even think about the consequences."

"Don't worry about it; we've all done things, or will do things that we're not proud of. Making mistakes is a part of being human, as long as we learn from them."

"Well I definitely won't be sending anyone else to a crack house."

"That's good; I don't need to worry about getting on your bad side then?" I ask innocently.

"Oh you should still worry, just because I won't do anything too horrible, doesn't mean I can't make your life miserable," she laughed.

I laugh with her, she really isn't that annoying, "Touché."

We split the bill, because we were not on a date, and head out to my car so I can take her home.

"Oh my God, Josh, you blew me off so you could go out with her?"

Bugger, I had managed to avoid Jane the Cheerio so far, but it looks like my luck has finally run out, "Jane, hi, how are you?"

"Don't give me that crap; is she your girlfriend?"

"Err, no."

"Does she know we slept together?"

Now I'm just annoyed, "Okay, firstly, it's none of her business," Rachel is looking incredibly uncomfortable right now, "and secondly, I didn't sleep with you okay, I passed out from alcohol abuse after we happened to have sex. Seriously, you wouldn't have even known it was me if Puck didn't make me wake you up in the morning." Wow, I had no idea I could be that harsh, I kind of regret saying anything at all.

She storms back over to her friends and they all walk off while glaring at me. I take the fact that she didn't slap me as a success though, I'm all about seeing the upside to any situation.

I turn back to Rachel and she's looking everywhere but at me, "Sorry you had to hear that."

"No that's okay, maybe I should just walk home?" she suggests, still not looking at me.

I sigh and rub the bridge of my nose, "I don't mind taking you."

She nods and walks over to the passenger door, "I do really like your car, even if it is damaging the environment." I chuckle a little at that and get in behind the steering wheel. It's quiet for a couple of minutes before she speaks up again, "Alcohol abuse?"

"I exaggerated a little. Remember how I said people do things they're not proud of?"

"I don't think it's nice to call someone a thing."

I can't help but laugh at that, "Yeah, well not just her, I… get around I suppose."

"I know you do."

"Wait, you do?" I'm a little surprised at that, surely I don't have that bad a reputation already.

"When Santana was talking to Brittany about you, she mentioned that you said as much to her."

"Were you just sitting eavesdropping on them?" I ask slightly amused.

"No, I was using the facilities."

"Sure you were, you just wanted the juicy gossip on the attractive British guy," I say as we pull on to her street.

She ignores my comment completely, "It was really nice of you to take me out, thank you."

"Don't mention it, I had fun."

"Me too, so I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, catch you later Rachel."

* * *

"Hey, Mr Schue?"

"What is it Josh?"

"Are you sure it's wise to sing here again?"

"These are the teachers Josh, nothing bad is going to happy this time."

"Need I remind you that it was a teacher who threw her shoe at us the other day?"

"She won't be there today. Nor will Artie and Brittany, so I need you to be there, you're a part of this Glee club too."

"Yeah I get that, and I really like it. The point is, I don't mind being ridiculed, I can handle it, but some of the others maybe can't."

"What are you suggesting?"

"Well, maybe you can have a word with the staff before we go in, remind them to act professionally."

"I don't think that will be a problem, but I'll mention it anyway, thanks."

"Sure." I watched him walk off for a second before leaving to join the others. It was a couple of days after I had gone out with Rachel, and quite a bit had happened. We had met in the choir room to find the tree destroyed, and the presents missing, which was quite disheartening, and Brittany had assured everyone that Santa had taken them all to fix them.

The next day Mr Schue joined us all in time to convince the girls not to cut off their hair, and the boys not to sell their watches for money to buy school supplies for the homeless children. Which I was slightly glad for, I didn't have any sentimental attachment to my watch like some of the guys, but it really was an amazing watch, expensive too. I don't lie to myself, I know I'm not the nicest person, but with the shoddy parenting I had received growing up, that's not really unexpected, is it?

After giving us a pep talk on the magic of Christmas, he decided we would sing for the staff to raise money instead, and when I say we, I mean Mr Schue; which brought us to today, where we had donned our Christmas cardigans and scarves again for Glee carolling 2.0 in the teachers' lounge.

When we finally get into position, Finn stands at the front to make a speech, and I'm reminded of why I don't like him. When we started to sing 'Welcome Christmas', I realised Mr Schue was either right, or he had a word with them and they listened, because they sat and politely listened to us, and even donated money.

* * *

"Hey you, Australia, come here."

I turn away from my locker and see Coach Sylvester beckoning me, "You do know I'm from England, not Australia right?"

"What's the difference?"

"Only about half of the world," I mumble.

"Where's the rest of your loser friends?"

"Choir room, post carolling celebration or something, is there something I can do for you Coach Sylvester?"

"In fact there is something you can do for me; I need the Glee club to meet me here on Christmas Eve, sometime in the afternoon."

"I was told that if I ever did anything for you, you would consume my soul," not a lie, Tina actually told me that.

"That seems rather ungrateful of me; maybe if you failed it could be a valid punishment. Otherwise, why would I do that?"

"I'm not sure; maybe you're trying to make up for the fact that you don't have one. I mean, that's just what I was told, I'm sure your soul is quite lovely."

"Are you done?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Good, just make sure you're all here. I promise I'm not trying to destroy you all," she says the last bit in a mocking tone.

* * *

I was sitting in my car with Puck next to me on the front bench seat, and Santana and Brittany in the back. We had been sitting for a short while listening to the radio and chatting about nothing in particular while we waited for everyone else to arrive. We were all sceptical about Coach Sylvester's motives, but the girls assured us she wasn't a complete monster.

Speaking of the girls, something was definitely going on with them. While I joked around with Puck playing slap attack and knuckles in the front, I had a decent view of them in the rear-view mirror. Now I had never really liked most of the girls I had been with on a personal level - minus a few I was friendly with such as Santana herself - but I definitely knew what secret smiles and shy glances meant, and the look in Santana's eyes as she watched her best friend babble about ducks and unicorns was unmistakable.

I found myself smiling at this cute and unexpected side to Santana, until I remembered that Brittany was currently seeing Artie, not good. Love triangles always lead to somebody getting hurt. I may not ever commit to relationships, but I didn't like the idea of cheating, and I had a feeling that might be going on here.

Puck was trying to convince me that it was so much better to go after cougars than teenage girls when a couple of other cars pull into the car park and the rest of the glee kids flowed out of the various vehicles, looks like we weren't the only ones to car pool.

"Brit, why don't you tell Puck here about that duck incident from earlier, I don't think he was listening, I just need to have a quick word with Santana, we'll catch up in a sec," I say as she grabs Santana's hand to pull her out of the car.

Puck and Santana are a little confused but go along with it when Brittany gets excited and pulls Puck out of the car, Santana climbs over the seat and sits next to me, giving me a look, "While I'm not usually one for repeat performances, I would be willing to make an exception for you, when were you thinking?"

Well that was a little presumptuous, "While I'm flattered you think that, that isn't what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Then what is it, Harris? I want to get back to Brittany."

"I hear that's how a lot of people feel about those they are in Love with," I comment while staring into her eyes. She scowls at me and I know I'm right.

"You don't know anything." Well those words sound familiar.

"The last person to say that to me ran away with his tail between his legs after I laid him out with a verbal beat-down. I'll tell you the same thing I told him, you really start to notice things if you pay a little attention to the world around you. I also kind off blackmailed him with what I knew." She glares and is about to say something when I hold up my hand to stop her. "I'm not going to do the same to you, because I count you as a friend, I want you to know that I'm not going to tell anybody about this, whether you are gay, or it's just her."

"I'm not gay!"

"That is exactly what he said as well, label or not, you can't help who you love, and I think we both know the truth, so there's no need for the gay panic. I just want you to know, I don't think any less of you, and if you need to talk to someone then you can call me any time."

I really can't tell how she's taking our little chat, her emotions are all over the place.

"You don't think it's… disgusting or anything?"

I scoff at her, "Listen darling, I'm British, which makes me a lot more accepting of people than others, okay?"

She nods at me, "are you mad that I slept with you even though I'm… you know."

"Are you serious?" I can see she is, "Not at all, we had fun didn't we?"

"Yeah, you're not bad for a guy."

I chuckle lightly at that, "I'm glad you think so."

She wipes a tear off her face and scoffs, "I can't believe you made me talk about my feelings, I feel dirty."

"Yeah, you don't come across as someone who opens up a lot. Just know that you're safe to be yourself around me, I won't tell anyone you're a big softie."

"You better not, or I will go all Lima Heights on your ass."

"Please, you don't live in Lima Heights, you live like, two streets away from me."

"I know, everyone's just too scared of me to call me on it," she smirks. "So are we done here?"

"Actually, there's just one more thing, you and Brittany."

"What about it? Just a second ago you were on about not being able to help who you love, what the hell?"

I put a hand on her shoulder to try to calm her down, "It's not that, she's a wonderful girl –

"Then what's your problem?"

I sigh at the interruption, "Santana, she's in a relationship."

"So, it's just Wheels, he's a stupid boy, I know she loves me back."

"You know Brittany better than me of course, but even I know she's not one to hide in the shadows, and I also know you're not ready to come into the light."

She slumped in her seat, the fire no longer present, "You're right, how are you always right?"

I shrug and laugh at her, "It's a gift, one I take pleasure in using to help my friends."

"Well, thanks for the talk, or whatever."

"Don't mention it," she starts to open the door but I grab her hand so she turns back to me, "If you ever need a beard you know where to find me."

"A what?" she asks looking confused.

"A beard, a guy who a lesbian dates to convince people she's straight."

She looks at me suspiciously, "Are you trying to have sex with me again?"

I can't help but laugh at that, "No, but at a party or whatever, we can pretend to hook up and just chat or something, or rate all the other girls in glee club together."

"What like, bromance?"

"Yeah sure, you can be my secret lezbro."

She scoffs, but smiles at me, "That would be pretty cool of you, could you just, quit with the labels though?"

"Of course, sorry, presumptuous of me I know."

"No, it's just, I'm not really used to even thinking it just yet, you know?" I just nod at her in reply, "Thanks a lot for this, Harris; you're a pretty good guy."

"Don't worry about it sweetheart, I'm here whenever you need me. You should probably freshen up your make-up before we join the others, tearstains."

She whips a compact mirror out of her bag and a wet wipe and starts cleaning her face before applying another layer of foundation and mascara. When she is done, we get out of the car and she pulls me into a quick awkward hug, whispering her thanks before letting me go again. I smile at her before we walk over to the others.

"What was that about?" Quinn asks her.

"Nothing, Harris here was practically begging me for another go between the sheets."

I just grin and wink at her, "You know you loved it Sultana, don't even deny it darling."

She scoffs at the nickname; while others seem a little surprised that she didn't bite my head off for it. Finn just looks confused as usual, "Wait, you had sex with Harris?"

I let her handle that, "Not that it's any of your business Finnocence, but yes. And can I just say, he was so much better at it than you." I don't even try and hide my smug smile. "What are you smiling at? It's not exactly an achievement to be better than him."

"Oh please, I happen to know for a fact that you think I was amazing, the walls have ears you know." Rachel shifts nervously for a second, but nobody else notices.

Santana's about to respond when we're interrupted by the arrival of Coach Sylvester, "Get over here, you mouth-breathers." We walk over to her looking a bit cautious, "No need to be so scared, I thought I told Limey over there that I wasn't planning on destroying you, just now anyway. He probably lost focus due to his painfully bad dental hygiene."

Well that was a little offensive, English people having bad teeth is a huge stereotype. "Actually, there's nothing wrong with my teeth," a grin widely to prove my point, "The reason I lost focus was because I was reminiscing about the free healthcare I used to get."

"Ha, free healthcare is for pansies, when I was in Panama, the only healthcare we got was an open flame to cauterise our wounds."

I cringe a little at the image and wonder if there is any truth whatsoever in her statement.

"So here's what's going to happen, you're all going to go into my office, and get all of the homeless kids presents I've hid in there and you're going to follow me to that failure of a man that you call a teacher's house."

"Wait, I thought Santa took all of the presents?" Brittany spoke up.

"Right, he did… but when he came back to drop them off again, I was the only one here, so I took them off his hands." The only one who believed her was Brittany, of course, but I was slightly impressed with her ability to come up with that on the spot.

* * *

I felt weird standing in Mr Schue's apartment waiting for him to turn up, and the fact that Rachel knew where he kept his cleaning supplies was a little creepy. I would have been perfectly content for Puck not to have knocked over that flower pot, and never to have found out about her cleaning his place one evening.

We had finished putting up the tree and had just started decorating it when we hear Mr Schue opening his front door, so we all hide around the corner and wait for our cue. When we get it, we all walk into the living room with boxes of decorations and go back to the tree.

Once we're done I hear Rachel telling Mr Schue that nobody should be lonely on Christmas eve, and it reminds me of the song I've been practicing. "Hey Mr Schue, have you got a guitar around here somewhere?"

"Yeah, do you have a song you want to perform?"

"Yeah, I think it's about time I showed you Americans how it's really done," I say with a grin.

I get a few 'ooohs' and 'ahhhs' and even an 'oh no he didn't' from Mercedes, while Mr Schue walks out chuckling. He's back in under a minute with a nice looking acoustic guitar and a capo, which will definitely come in handy.

"So, I've heard some talk over the past couple of weeks about being lonely on Christmas, and I'm no stranger to being alone this time of year myself; but obviously, there's a lot of people who are much worse off, so yeah."

I put the capo on the guitar and start plucking at the strings after taking a deep breath and start singing.

_Have you seen the old man _

_In the closed-down market _

_Kicking up the papers, _

_with his worn out shoes? _

_In his eyes you see no pride _

_Hand held loosely at his side_

_Yesterday's paper telling yesterday's news_

_So how can you tell me that you're lonely, _

_And say for you that the sun don't shine? _

_Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London _

_I'll show you something to make you change your mind _

_Have you seen the old girl _

_Who walks the streets of London _

_Dirt in her hair and her clothes in rags? _

_She's no time for talking, _

_She just keeps right on walking _

_Carrying her home in two carrier bags. _

_In the all night cafe_

_At a quarter past eleven, _

_Same old man is sitting there on his own _

_Looking at the world _

_Over the rim of his tea-cup, _

_Each tea last an hour _

_Then he wanders home alone _

_So how can you tell me that you're lonely, _

_And say for you that the sun don't shine? _

_Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London _

_I'll show you something to make you change your mind _

_And have you seen the old man _

_Outside the seaman's mission _

_Memory fading with _

_The medal ribbons that he wears. _

_In our winter city, _

_The rain cries a little pity _

_For one more forgotten hero _

_And a world that doesn't care _

_So how can you tell me that you're lonely, _

_And say for you that the sun don't shine? _

_Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London _

_I'll show you something to make you change your mind_

* * *

**AN: So the song is _'Streets of London'_ by Ralph McTell, and it's a pretty old song but it's really good. Obviously, I don't own the song or whatever, seeing as I wasn't even born when it was released. **


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I take a couple of steps back after ringing the bell of the Berry residence; this would have been so much easier if I had Rachel's number. It's not long until a tall, intimidating black man opens the door, "Can I help you?"

"Yeah, Mr Berry?"

"That's me," I inwardly scoff at the thought of Rachel not knowing which of her fathers is the biological one, there is no way it's the man standing before me.

"I'm a friend of Rachel's, is she here?"

"You're Joshua?"

"Yeah, Josh is fine, how'd you know?"

"Your accent, Rachel talks about you."

"Right of course, that's what kids do with their parents." He looks a little confused at that, but I shrug at him, "So is she around?"

"Yeah, we were just about to eat, why don't you join us?"

"Oh no, I wouldn't want to impose, I can come back after-" I don't get any further before he cuts me off.

"Nonsense, its new year's eve, the more the merrier."

He stands aside and waves me into the house, it has a nice modern feel to it, but the walls and surfaces are covered in family photographs and dancing and singing awards. It's a stark contrast to my own home, and even though I'm positive I'm wealthier, I find myself a little envious of the obvious Love Rachel has grown up surrounded by.

The tall man leads me into an open plan living/dining room, with a baby grand piano and a decent sized table that is filled with party food.

Rachel's dad chuckles at my shocked expression, "That stuff is for later on; we're having a small gathering with some friends of ours to celebrate the New Year."

I'm a little relieved at that, although the food is light, there is a lot of it, an excessive amount for three people. I follow him through a simple archway and into a spacious kitchen where I see Rachel and her other dad sitting at a breakfast bar with their backs to me.

"Rachel honey, you have a guest."

Both Rachel and her dad turn to us and I take some pleasure in seeing her mouth drop, "Hey Rachel, nice place." I say after a moment of her staring at me.

"Joshua! What are you doing here?"

I wince a little at that, "Yeah, sorry for just dropping by, I would have called, but I don't have your number."

"Right, oh how rude of me, this is my dad, Hiram, and my daddy, Leroy," she points to the one who didn't answer the door for me first and he gives me a small wave. "Dad, daddy, this is Joshua Harris, he recently joined Glee club after moving from England, and he's on the football team as well. I'm not sure what position, but I've heard he's very good and even scored a goal in the last game."

I laugh at that while her dads look on amused, "I'm a running back, and it's a touchdown," I say with a small smile.

She blushes a little at that, "Oh, I see, well anyway, what can I help you with?"

"I was going to ask if you were going to go to Mike's Party, but your dad said something about your own party, so…" I shrug a little awkwardly. Her dads perk up at that, but her face falls a little and I'm not sure why,

"I wasn't invited to any parties."

"Neither was I," I say causing her a little confusion.

"I don't understand, you and Mike are really close, why weren't you invited? And I'm not going to crash a party, and neither should you," she says while crossing her arms.

"Rachel, it's a high school party, nobody _gets_ an invite; you just turn up. If you hear about it, then you are invited." Has she seriously never been to a high school party? Where is this girl's social life?

"Oh, then I would love to go, but like you said; I do have a prior engagement."

Hiram cuts in, "Don't be silly Rachel, you should go out with your friends, I'm sure it will be much more enjoyable for you." Rachel looks slightly hopeful at that.

"Not so fast," Leroy turns to me, "will it be supervised?"

I contemplate the merits of lying for a second before deciding not to, "Probably not."

"Oh, and I suppose there will be alcoholic beverages present?"

I shrug nonchalantly, "Most likely, but not an excessive amount, and nothing too hard; beer and wine coolers, that kind of thing. Obviously there will be non-alcoholic stuff too, like… water."

I see his lips twitch upwards at that, but he continues to stare me down, my will shall not be broken!

After a tense moment, he looks towards Hiram and they have one of those silent conversations that consist only of body language. I'm pretty sure Hiram wins, because Leroy sighs and turns to his daughter, "You can go on one condition; under no circumstances will you drink and drive, or get into a car with someone who has been drinking. You phone your dad or me when you want to come home, and we'll pick you up."

She squeals and kisses him on the cheek, "Thank you daddy, oh I need to get changed. Wait, what do I wear to a high school party?"

I look down at what I'm wearing and shrug, "Something casual, jeans and a top, maybe a dress, nothing too fancy of course. There isn't a dress code; Tina usually wears her normal stuff. Just wear something comfortable, that you can dance in," I suggest.

"Okay, I'll be back in a minute." She runs out of the room leaving me standing awkwardly in front of her dads.

"So, Joshua," Hiram begins, "What prompted the move, England is a long way from here."

"My dad was transferred to the Ohio branch of Cortech. Everyone who works for the company in Ohio pretty much works for him now."

"Wow, that's rather impressive."

"Yeah, I'd appreciate you not mentioning that to Rachel though."

Leroy raises an eyebrow at me, "Why not?"

I shrug, "I don't want to be treated any different because I'm rich, and it already causes enough problems." Like my non-existent relationship with my dad, oh well.

They share a glance before Hiram thankfully changes the subject, "Rachel tells me you drove her home the other week?"

"Yeah, it was pretty cold, and not too far out of my way, so it was no trouble."

"And you took her out to eat?" Leroy adds.

"She mentioned you were both working late, so yeah."

Leroy gives me another stern look, "Do you want to date my daughter?"

I choke on my saliva in shock at that, how did I not see that coming? "Um, no sir, Rachel and I are just friends, and I'm not looking to change that."

"And why not, do you not think her good enough for you?" Hiram asks.

Brilliant, now they think I'm an arrogant snob, "Not at all, it's the opposite actually; I'm not really boyfriend material."

"Is that so? You're very polite, and Rachel informs us that you are nothing but a gentleman in regards to her."

"Right, I'm just not looking for any kind of relationship just now."

They glance at each other for a second, before bursting out in laughter. Now I'm just confused, did I say something funny?

Leroy manages to get himself under control first, "Relax Josh, Rachel mentioned your multiple sexual partners, her words not mine, and while I don't personally approve of your actions, I am fine with you and Rachel being friends; as long as you don't try anything with her that she isn't comfortable with."

Seriously, the relief is palpable; I feel like I just dodged a bullet. The misters Berry are actually pretty cool, that could have gone down much uglier than it did.

"So, Josh, what are your plans tonight, do you need a lift home as well?" Hiram asks.

I shake my head, "Actually I'm going to crash at Mike's, all the Glee guys are staying over. We're planning a day of video games and junk food for whenever we manage to drag ourselves out of bed."

Leroy chuckles at that, "Ah, to be young again."

I hear a clearing of the throat behind me, and turn and see Rachel standing there. She's wearing a navy blue dress that stops just above the knee, with buttons from the waist to the neckline just below the collarbones. She doesn't look too bad. Actually, with her hair down in a gentle wave she looks pretty hot.

"Well, what do you think?"

We all compliment her on her attire, and Hiram reminds her of the Chinese takeout she had forgotten in her rush to get ready. We all share small talk while she finishes, and we eventually leave and I'm driving to the Chang residence.

"You do look really nice."

"You really think so?" she asks shyly.

"Definitely, you should wear stuff like that more often." It is a definite improvement over the horrible sweaters.

She just smiles with a light blush in response.

I pull over a couple of houses down from Mike's, and I use the term 'house' very loosely, it is about twice the size of mine, which is big in its own right. This is where my dad was originally looking to buy, but nothing was for sale, and no wonder, they are all incredibly impressive.

"These houses are huge, Mike really lives here?"

"Yeah, his dad's family is like, mega rich."

"You wouldn't think it with the way he acts, he's so down-to-earth."

"Not every rich kid is a spoilt brat," I say with a smirk.

"Of course not, just the vast majority of them."

"True enough. Do you have your phone with you?"

"Yes, why do you ask?"

"Give it here and I'll put my number in." I save my number in her contacts and then call my phone so I'll have hers. "If we get separated and you need me for whatever just send me a quick text, alright darling?"

The smile that appears on her face is massive as she thanks me. We get out and head into the large house. I eventually find the kitchen while dragging her behind me, and get myself a beer.

"What do you want to drink? There's coke and stuff, so don't drink any alcohol if you don't want to, okay?"

She nods and gets herself some fizzy grape juice, or _soda_ I suppose, silly Americanisms. "Just make sure you don't take anything someone you don't trust offers you, alright?"

She nods again while looking around, nervously sipping at her drink. "Come on, let's dance for a bit."

I drag her into the living room where the music is much louder, and start dancing after pulling her back against my chest. She's a little awkward at first but picks it up soon enough; I figure it's not the kind of dancing she's used to. We're a couple of songs in when she really lets her hair down, and starts grinding into me.

I'm shocked for all of two seconds until I see Finn glaring at the two of us in Rachel's direct line of sight, and I send him a smirk and a little wave. "Don't make him too jealous now," I shout over the loud music, leaning close to her ear. She turns her head to look over her shoulder with a blush on her face and grin at her, "We can give him a little show if you want?"

She pulls her bottom lip into her teeth and chews on it for a second, which is surprisingly hot, before nodding at me. Smirking as she turns back to face him, I pull her hair over her left shoulder and lean in to place light kisses on her neck and jawline. I feel her shiver against me as her hand comes up and she threads her fingers into my hair, holding my head in place and lightly massaging my scalp. I won't even deny that it feels crazy good.

I glance up in Finn's direction and see him pushing his way through everybody between him and the door. It doesn't seem like Rachel wants to stop anytime soon, so I start sucking on her pulse point, enjoying how her hand tightens in my hair. I don't plan to escalate it any further though. Fun fact, Rachel Berry's neck tastes like strawberry's, how insane is that.

I groan as I remember the conversation I had with her dads not too long ago, I think I just cock blocked myself. Who am I kidding; it's not as if Rachel Berry would even think about having casual meaningless sex with someone. I pull away from her neck and she turns around with a frown on her face, "Why did you stop?"

"Finnocence left the room like, two minutes ago darling. You probably didn't notice; I can have that effect on girls."

She rolls her eyes at me, "While what we were just doing did feel nice, it in no way affected me to the extent that you are suggesting."

"Of course not, what was I thinking?" I say with a light chuckle. "Come on, let's go and see who's about, shall we?"

"Lead the way."

I grab her hand and pull her after me as I make my way through the bottom floor of the house, surprised at how many people are actually here. We get to the den and I see Mike, Tina, Artie and Brittany laughing with a guy I haven't met before. I manoeuvre Rachel so she's in front of me and gently nudge her in their direction, following behind her.

Mike see's us first, "Rachel, you came? It's good to see you. Hey Harris, I thought you would be here ages ago?"

"Yeah, I stopped to pick up Rachel, saved her from a New Year's with her parents."

Rachel starts talking to Tina, and I'm about to introduce myself to the one unknown when Brittany squeals and grabs me in a strong hug.

"That's amazing, you're like a superhero!"

I laugh as I hug her back, "Yeah, something like that."

Mike interrupts our hug, "Josh, this is Matt Rutherford. He used to go to McKinley but he transferred."

"Hey, Josh Harris," I say as I shake his hand.

"Hi, Mike says you're the new running back?"

"Yeah, I've just played the one game so far, but we did win."

"I never thought I'd see the day where the McKinley Titans actually won games. That new coach must be something else."

"Oh, she definitely knows what she's doing. She almost didn't let me try out because I moved here so late, but she obviously couldn't resist the British charm."

Matt laughs at that, "Do you get much action on the team? Finn's still the QB, right. Last year I mainly played as a slotback."

"I know what you mean, it got to half time and we still hadn't played any runs, so I might have mentioned something to him about it."

"Are you kidding? You practically chewed his head off!"

I can't help but grin at that, "You exaggerate Mike, but we ended up scoring two rushing touchdowns so don't complain now."

Mike holds his hands up in surrender and smiles, "Who's complaining, that reverse sweep we pulled off was awesome."

"It really was you guys," Tina added.

I spend a few minutes making small talk when I feel my phone vibrating with a text message; I take it out and see that it's from Santana.

_U at boy Changs?_

_Yea wats up?_

_Kitchen x_

"I'll catch up with you guys later, nice meeting you Matt." I get affirmatives from all of them and head of towards the kitchen. I get there a few minutes later after a run in with Sam and Quinn, and see Santana leaning against the fridge door, the room being otherwise empty.

"What took you so long? I texted you like, five minutes ago."

"Bumped into Sam and Quinn on the way, and I am now vaguely aware of how 'Happy New Year' sounds in Na'vi."

Santana snorts into her drink, "What a dork, here." She hands me a bottle of beer and I search through a couple of draws until I find an opener.

"So what are you doing in here? Guarding the alcohol?"

"No, it's just a relatively quiet place where I could meet you." I'm not convinced, and I just raise an eyebrow and take a drink. "Fine, I'm hiding from Brittany."

I frown at that, "Why? You're like, best friends."

"Yeah, but she's all up on Legs right now, and pretty soon she'll have drank enough to start stripping. While I would like to watch that happen, _he_ will be there ogling her, and then I'll have to go all Lima Heights on his robot ass."

"So… you're jealous of Artie?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Why didn't you just say that then?"

"Whatever, are we gonna fake get it on or what?"

I laugh at that and put my arm over her shoulders, "Sure darling, you wanting to make a scene about it?"

"What did you have in mind?"

I shrug a little, "I figure you can just act all flirty and giggly or something, it's not like I do this kind of thing all the time."

"You have more sex than anyone I know, except maybe Puck. I mean, you must have done half of the Cheerios at least."

"Okay, well that's a bit of an exaggeration. Since I moved here, I've slept with you, Sarah - you know that blonde girl on the volleyball team, and two Cheerios, that's it. Four people, in like six weeks, actually, that is a lot. Why are high school girls so susceptible to the English charm?"

A couple of jocks walk into the kitchen and Santana glares at them until they turn and walk back out, leaving her suitably smug, "You're like a new shiny toy, they'll get bored eventually. Did you actually sleep with Jane Thompson by the way?"

"Is that her second name? I just refer to her as Jane the Cheerio in my head, but yeah why, are you jealous?"

She snorts, "Of course I'm not jealous; she just goes on about it so much I figured it had to be a lie. _Oh, Josh was so amazing the other night, and I definitely rocked his world. I know he's thinking of asking me out. Don't worry; you can all live vicariously through me._ It almost made me throw up."

It was my turn to snort, "Well that's not going to happen, ever. And it certainly wasn't her that rocked my world," I said with a wink.

"I'm just that good."

I fake a surprised gasp, "Oh, I didn't mean you, sorry. It was totally Sarah, that girl has some upper body strength." Before this moment, I had no idea I could fake wistfulness.

She elbows me in the ribs and shrugs my arm of, "Jerk. I'll admit, she is probably the hottest on the volleyball team, but she has nothing on this," she says while gesturing to her body. She was wearing a tight strapless black dress that ends mid-thigh and showed some impressive cleavage.

"You got me, it was totally you," I smirk at her. "See what I mean though, total bromance moment right there, you just said a girl was hot."

She rolls her eyes at me, "Sure, I guess you can be my secret male equivalent of a fag hag."

"Awesome."

"Seriously though, they must have been bad if a self-admitted lesbian was better than them. And that's still staying self-admitted by the way, no one else is allowed to know, I'm not ready for rainbows and flannel," she says sternly.

"I get it, don't fret darling. I don't think you'll have any problems with the rest of the Glee club though. That's what Glee's all about right, it's a place to be who you are without being judged for it."

"Yeah well I said I'm not ready, so just stop bringing it up."

"Fair enough, I shan't mention it again, whenever you're ready love."

"Good, let's get this over with, the sooner we get in a room the sooner we can leave again."

"What, you don't like spending time with me? I'm genuinely upset right now."

She ignores me and pulls me by the hand behind her. When we get out of the kitchen, she lets out a giggle starts pulling me backwards, running her hand over my chest with a sexy smirk on her face. It was as if she flipped a switch in her head, and I was rather impressed with her acting.

Before we get to the staircase, we bump into Jane the Cheerio, and while I want to ignore her, the Latina obviously has other plans.

"Oh Jane, it's so lovely to see you. You will never guess what happened, I was talking to Josh here, you know Josh right? Well anyway, he mentioned how you two hooked up at Puck's party last month, and how he wasn't too impressed. Seriously, it was probably hard for him to go through with it, especially as we already did it before that. I figured I could do him a favour and remind him of what I can do, that way he won't go running to skanks like you again. So do us all a favour and stay away from my man from now on, you gets me?"

She doesn't wait for a reply before pulling me up the stairs and into the first bedroom we come to and locking the door.

"Well that was unnecessarily cruel, I think she was about to cry."

"Look, I'm not a bitch to you, because I actually like you somewhat, but that does not mean I don't have a certain reputation with the rest of the school that I have to uphold. I'm a bitch, you have to accept that."

"You may be cold and hard on the outside, but I'm pretty sure you have a soft gooey centre, kind of like a cream egg."

"I'll ignore how gross that sounds for now, but you are right I suppose. The problem is the only person who I've ever let inside that gooey centre is… all loved up downstairs with sit-and-spin." She falls backwards onto the bed while I wander around the room taking everything in; it's pretty empty, obviously a guest room.

"You know, this place looks like a not-so-cheap motel room."

"What's your point?"

"Nothing, I was just contemplating checking the draws for a bible."

"How would a bible help?"

"Oh, it won't. Not you anyway, I'm pretty sure it's not too big on homosexuality," I say as I jump on the bed next to her.

"I'm starting to regret ever telling you I'm a lesbian," she groans.

I scoff at that, "You didn't tell me, I observed, and you confirmed it after a pathetic attempt at denial."

"Whatever."

"Speaking of, I figured you would deny it till the cows came home, what gives?"

"A month before and I probably would have."

"What changed?" I ask curiously.

"You," she says simply.

"I don't follow."

"Well, it was after we did it. Don't let this go to your head, but you were better than any other guy I've been with."

"I don't know how you expect that not to go to my head."

She hits my arm with the back of her hand, "The point is, even though it was really good, it still didn't make me feel what I do when…"

"When you're with her," the 'her' I'm referring to is pretty obvious.

"Yeah," she admits with a sigh.

"If it's any consolation, I don't really feel much beyond physical pleasure with anyone I have sex with."

She snorts at me, "Maybe you're capital 'G' gay?"

I laugh at that, "I doubt it darling, no gay guy appreciates the female form the way I do. You know they say one in ten people are gay?"

"Yeah…" she says warily.

"Stands to reason that one of the disciples was gay, there were twelve of them."

"That is ridiculous."

"Which one do you reckon it was; Simon Peter was always pretty close to the big J, right?"

She laughs and rolls onto her side facing me, "I've decided that even though I've come to terms with my sexuality, it's still okay for me to gets my mack on with guys every now and then."

"Cool," I say with a grin as I lean up to her.

She puts a hand on my chest to stop me, "I want you to know, I'm only doing this so you will shut the hell up."

Her lips attacking mine cut off my laughter, and I realise that even though I'm not having sex with her, I'm still having fun. I mean I've had fun with girls and not had sex before, like with Tina when we were in London; but I'm surprised at how cool Santana actually is when she's not being a massive bitch.

We make out off and on for a while before my phone vibrates, interrupting us with a text from Rachel.

_I just wanted to say thank you for bringing me to the party with you, you did not have to do that and I appreciate it. I have not seen you in a while, so I wanted to say goodbye as I have called my dad to pick me up because it is getting late. Happy New Year, and thanks again. – Rachel*_

Jesus Christ! That text is longer than some emails I've gotten, "Rachel, girl even rants via text message."

_Wats w/ the SA?_

_It was hardly of sufficient length to class as an essay Joshua. There is nothing wrong with using correct grammar and spelling while texting. Especially as phones make use of QWERTY keyboards these days. – Rachel*_

_Chill. kl tho. C u l8r_

I put my phone on the bedside table and turn back to Santana to find her looking at me curiously, "What's with you and Berry?"

"We're friends, she's not too bad."

"Er… yes she is, she's crazy. You do know she sent a girl to a crack house, right?"

"Admittedly, she can be a bit intense, but whatever. She just needs someone to be nice to her; she's not the most well liked person around."

The Latina looks a little guilty for a second, before she wipes the look of her face, "Is that why you were making out with her earlier?"

"No, she wanted to make Hudson jealous, what she sees in him I'll never know, but it was kind of fun to piss him off. And even you have to admit that under those horrible sweaters she's pretty hot."

"Ugh, if you repeat this to anyone, I will destroy you, but she is sneaky hot I suppose," she admits grudgingly.

I grin at her, "Ha, best lezbro ever."

She hits me again for that, "Come on English, I need a drink, we've been in here long enough."

* * *

"Seriously, you _so_ want to tap that."

I roll my eyes at Santana, "What are you talking about now?"

"Duh, I'm talking about the midget!"

I scoff, "I do not."

"The fact that you just sat outside with her in the cold for ten minutes says otherwise."

"Whatever, I'm a seventeen year old boy who likes sex; and she's a hot, mildly attractive girl. If she was up for casual sex then I would, but she wants romance. She's the kind of girl who wants to be wooed, and have my undivided attention. That's not really my thing."

"True enough, though finding someone who can stand her personality long enough will be a challenge. Convincing them to move under her bridge will be harder."

I can't help but snort into my drink at the troll reference, "Hudson did well enough."

"Yeah, but Finnept's stupid protected his brain from melting," she says dismissively with a wave of her hand.

"I guess I can't argue with that. I'm going to wander for a bit, catch you later yeah?"

She nods at me, "Yeah. Hey Josh?"

I frown at how she suddenly turned timid, "What is it darling?"

"Thanks for… you know, _hooking up_ earlier."

"Don't worry about it, anytime… Santana, are you crying?"

"No, it's the alcohol fumes in my eye," she turns her head away from me and wipes at her face with the hand not holding a drink. "Fine, I'm a weepy drunk, I can't help it. It all just comes out, there's no stopping it when it starts."

"Can I get you anything, a tissue… or a shoulder to cry on?"

She shakes her head frantically, drawing in a breath, "I'm fine, you just… go somewhere not here."

"Right… um, I'll see you later then yeah?" I quickly make my escape; I don't mesh well with crying girls, and a crying Santana is like, ten times worse.

* * *

It's been about an hour since I ran away from a crying Latina, and I have spent my time dancing, drinking, and playing beer pong with Puck - and when I say playing, I mean getting my arse kicked. Who knew he could be so good at that game while drunk? In fact, I bet he's terrible at it while sober.

I grab myself another beer before heading out the back door into a beautiful garden, with lanterns and fairy lights scattered around the patio and hanging off tree branches. I only see one person outside, Quinn, and I'm surprised more people aren't here. It is incredibly warm inside, but I guess most people prefer that to the cold.

"Hey Quinn, what are you doing out here?" I ask as I sit down on the bench next to her.

"I'm sick of seeing everyone have a good time while I'm miserable."

I frown, "You want to talk about it?" I'm not sure what I can do with a shrug, but I'll go with it. "Did something happen tonight. You seemed okay earlier."

"No, I'm just brooding I guess. I thought drinking was supposed to dull the pain?"

"Only the lucky ones find relief in a bottle. People like you and me, the alcohol just makes the pain seem so much more than it is. The trick is to not think about it at all when drinking, because if you do, you get sucked into it and can't climb out." Great, there goes my happiness for the night.

"What could you possibly be hurting over, you're popular, and rich and you have girls spreading their legs for you with a few words. Your life is perfect."

"You know you really shouldn't judge a book by its cover. You seem to be doing pretty well yourself, and yet here we are, brooding in the dark." She just shrugs again in response. "How do you know I'm rich anyway?" I ask curiously.

"The rich can always spot fellow rich people." She's not wrong, I thought it was just me being observant, it's like I have a built in gaydar but for rich people. "Also, have you seen that car you drive, it literally screams money."

"I'll give you that; it's not exactly subtle is it? In all seriousness though, I'm not as perfect as I seem."

"Let me guess, daddy issues?"

I chuckle humourlessly, "Is it that obvious?"

"No, but I'm pretty perceptive. I don't think anyone else noticed, but you mentioned being lonely on Christmas at Mr Schue's place. Also, with the way you use girls for sex, I'd say there's some mommy issues thrown in there as well," she says looking at me suggestively.

It takes me a few moments to realise what she's implying, "Whoa, I don't have an Oedipus complex or anything, so stop looking at me like that." I don't even know what she looks like. I sigh and run my hand threw my hair, "I've never met my mum, she left just after I was born. Literally, like a month after, postpartum depression probably."

"That's horrible."

"It could've been worse."

"How?"

"She could have dropped me off a balcony or something; I take what I can get, I suppose."

She lets out a chocked laugh before covering her mouth with her hand, looking at me with wide eyes.

"Don't fret darling, I was trying to make you laugh," I say as I pull her hand away from her mouth. "I can't let you brood over Beth all night." Puck had finally filled me in on all the Glee gossip.

"You know about Beth?" she sighs, "Of course you do, I don't know why I thought you wouldn't. I was just hoping there would be one person who didn't judge me."

I squeeze the hand I'm still holding, "Hey, I've not exactly lived a life free of sin, how can I judge you for making the best of a tough situation? And I do mean the best, you could have had an abortion and gone on living your perfect life, but you gave up everything so she could live. Okay, so maybe not everything, but you sacrificed a lot, and you did right by your daughter."

"You know, a lot of people have told me that, but you're the first that I actually believe." _Aww fuck!_ I am getting into some seriously troubled waters here. I know this look, she's biting her bottom lip, and looking between my eyes and my lips; she's going to kiss me. Normally I wouldn't mind, Quinn is an attractive girl, but she's also going out with Sam, who's a friend.

I should really look away right now, just break the tension, and say something, anything! She's leaning towards me now, and I'm leaning towards her. Why am I leaning towards her? Surely, I haven't drunk enough alcohol for my body to start betraying me. No that's ridiculous; I can drink anyone I know under the table.

Okay, so I'm starting to panic a little on the inside, I know I shouldn't be kissing Quinn, and yet here I sit with her lips moving tentatively against mine, and my hand is at her face, lightly brushing her cheekbone with my thumb. Seriously, who am I right now? She has a boyfriend who happens to be my friend, which makes her off limits. What am I playing at? I can't even blame it on the alcohol; I have an incredible high tolerance for the stuff.

My stomach feels a little weird right now; probably guilt over making out with a friend's girlfriend, my tongue is in her mouth for god's sake. Although, I'm used to feeling guilty, I feel it whenever I see a girl I've slept with and preceded to ignore, this definitely isn't guilt; I have no idea what this is, and that is a scary thought.

_Oh my God!_ Is this girl giving me butterflies? No way, I don't get feelings for girls, that is not the way I operate; it must be the alcohol, clearly I've drunk more than I previously thought. Crap, the alcohol. Quinn is probably drunk off her face right now, which means I need to stop.

She pushes her tongue into my mouth with a moan and my thoughts are derailed, change of plan; keep kissing Quinn. Seriously, why would I want to stop doing this? My mouth is tingling right now, _tingling_. Unfortunately, she pulls away soon after to take a much needed breath of air, dragging my bottom lip through her teeth before pulling away completely.

"Wow…"

My hand falls uselessly against my thigh and I let out an explosive breath, "Yeah…"

"I need to go."

Before I could respond to that, she was running back into the house and I slumped against the bench. Well this sucks, that was probably the best kiss I'd ever had. Maybe it's like Puck and beer pong? Yeah, kissing Quinn probably isn't half as good as that sober.

I've been sitting on my own for five minutes now, and I was still thinking about kissing Quinn again; this was getting ridiculous. I really need a distraction. I get up and head back inside to re-join the party, and I spot a familiar girl laughing with a couple of her friends.

"Hey Sarah, how's it going?" her face lights up when she looks at me.

"Josh, hi. Everything's great now you're here." Yep, that is her hand squeezing my bicep; just the distraction I was hoping I'd get.


End file.
